


Fireworks

by dryopteridaceae



Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
Genre: Ableism, Autism, Autistic Character, Fourth of July, Gen, Mr. Davenport kind of sucks sometimes, Platonic Relationships, Sensory Overload, Sibling Bonding, and so does leo (he has adhd too), because they're siblings you freaks, chase has autism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 17:19:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11422572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryopteridaceae/pseuds/dryopteridaceae
Summary: It's the Fourth of July and the fireworks are a little bit too loud for Chase. More than a little, actually.





	Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> Chase is autistic I don't make the rules... this entire fic is pretty much written from my autistic ass's experience with fireworks. (Leo is also autistic in this fic, and he has ADHD.) Also, Mr. Davenport is kind of awful in this even if he's not physically there his ableism is talked about a lot.

Chase learns very quickly that he _hates_ fireworks.

It’s the Fourth of July, and apparently going to the big fireworks show that takes place in a neighboring town is something of a tradition between Leo and Tasha, one they’ve decided to let the others join in on. Everyone piles in the car, kids squished in the back (Leo ends up on Adam’s lap since he’s the smallest despite his many loud protests) and adults nice and roomy in the front.

They all know what fireworks are, of course. They’re in some of the books they’ve read and movies they’ve seen, usually during the big scenes when the two love interests finally kiss or when the bad guy is defeated (they’ve seen Mulan more times than they can count. Or at least more times than Adam can count. Chase knows it’s 128). But there’s a difference between seeing fireworks in movies and reading about them in books and actually being there when the fireworks get set off.

The difference being the level of noise.

They’re already part of the way through the show when Bree realizes Chase is missing.

She elbows Adam and points to where Chase _was_ standing, yelling to be heard over the noise of the crowd and the fireworks. “Chase is gone!”

“What?” He yells back, not even looking at her because he’s so caught up in the pretty lights. She drags him down to her level so she can shout directly in his ear.

“Chase is gone,” she repeats. “The noise must’ve been too much for him. I didn’t see where he went.”

“Hey, Chase is gone,” Adam notices, and Bree rolls her eyes.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” she yells before letting go of him. “I’m going to go look for him.”

Adam gives her a thumbs up, and she doesn’t stick around to see if he even heard her say where she was going or what she was doing. Chase probably hadn’t gone far, and if anybody tried to hurt him Bree was more than certain he could handle himself, but… Still, she was worried about her baby brother. He probably hadn’t been expecting the fireworks to be as loud and overwhelming as they were-overwhelming even for _her,_ since she’d started covering her ears as soon as the ones that made screeching noises showed up, and she doesn’t even have sensory issues like Chase did.

Chase, she quickly discovers, isn’t even hiding. Bree finds him fast with only a few seconds of searching at super-speed.

He’s standing about a block away cowering in the doorframe of a closed building, hands over his ears and eyes squeezed shut. He looks up when she touches his shoulder before shrugging it off fast with a noise of discomfort.

“Too loud?” Bree says. She’s hardly able to hear _herself_ over the noise, but Chase must be able to even while overwhelmed since he nods. “Do you want me to run you home? I’ll tell Tasha and Mr. Davenport you had to leave. They’ll understand.”

Chase hisses and covers his ears tighter as another trio of fireworks go off over their heads. “Too loud,” he mumbles, too quietly for Bree to hear him. She watches his lips move instead and tries to make out what he’s saying. “It’s too loud, I don’t know if I can-”

“I can run you home and be back here in thirty seconds,” Bree promises. “The others won’t mind, Adam’s probably the only one who even knows we’re gone. And it’ll be quieter at home.”

Chase would still probably be able to hear the noise from the fireworks from home, but it would be quieter and they would be gone completely if he went down to the basement. And it would definitely be quieter than being here, right underneath where the center of the noise was.

As Bree watches, Chase starts rocking on his heels. She remembers something Mr. Davenport once told her and Adam privately, away from Chase. About how Chase wasn’t like them. How he had… Glitches with his human side, too, the products of a faulty chip. How if they ever saw Chase glitching in any of the ways that he described (hand flapping, rocking on his heels or with his knees hugged over and over again, repeating words over and over again, squeezing himself, pulling on his own hair, and a whole long list of other things) then they should tell him quickly. So that he could try to fix the glitching before it got too out of hand.

Bree never quite knew how to feel about that, but watching Chase now, rocking back and forth with his ears covered, she realizes she’s not going to tell Mr. Davenport about this. Not this time. But she might… She might tell Chase about how Dr. Davenport thinks it’s because of a glitch that Chase acts like this. (She doesn’t, not anymore, not since they started school. Not since they met Leo, really, because Leo does some of these things too, like word repeating and constant movement and things like that and _he’s_ not bionic so it _can’t_ be a glitch.)

“Seriously, Chase,” she says louder, “I really will take you home. Tasha wouldn’t want you to stay if she knew it was hurting you.”

He uncovers his ears just long enough to look Bree up and down quickly before nodding-right before another firework booms above their heads and he yelps loudly, face screwing up in pain. “Please.”

Bree scoops him up, picking him up bridal style since it’s easiest to carry one person like that at superspeed without dropping them, and runs home. It takes a little longer than expected since she didn’t pay attention to the route on the drive, instead preoccupied with trying to look out the window and with trying to get comfortable while squished up against both Adam and Chase in the middle.

But the mansion is fairly hard to miss, and at such high speeds it’s easy to make up for lost time once she realizes where she needs to backtrack.

She sets Chase on the couch and zips back a little bit, hands on her hips. “This better?”

He nods, slowly lowering his hands from his ears. “...Yeah, much better. Thanks.”

“No problem.” Bree moves to leave again, only to stop and look at Chase.

He’s not in the same position she left him in, having drawn his legs up so he’s cross-legged on the couch, arms squeezing himself tightly as his mouth moves like he’s talking to himself. Bree frowns and leans toward him a little bit, straining her ears to try to make out the words. It’s probably none of her business, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to resist the urge to listen in.

But her baby brother is talking too quietly for her to make out, and she shrugs a little before leaning back a bit regretfully. “I’m heading back to the show, Chasey. Try not to destroy the house before we get back.”

“I’m not Adam.” Chase breaks off his muttering to say it and roll his eyes. “I’ll probably be sleeping when you guys get back.”

Bree gives him a thumbs-up. “Alright. I’ll let everyone else know. Feel better.”

She’s gone before he can say anything else, not sure what else _either_ of them _can_ say. She feels weird about this, like… Like they should have seen this coming and decided that letting Chase stay home was a better option. It just doesn’t really sit right with her and she can’t explain why, especially since-

Oh. It’d been so trivial at the time that she hadn’t even remembered it until now despite it happening earlier that day. Mr. Davenport and Chase had been having an argument that morning about… About _something._ Chase had been upset on their way to school but had cheered up around math class. Bree hadn’t even known any of the specifics of the fight, just that it had caused Chase to be quiet and subdued for most of the early morning.

Chase argued with people all the time, including Bree herself, so she hadn’t thought anything of it.

It was probably just a coincidence that Chase had been in pain the same day that he and Mr. Davenport had had an argument. Mr. Davenport  _loved_ them, he was their _dad,_ and besides-it was Tasha and Leo’s Fourth of July tradition, not his. It couldn’t have been intentional.

Bree was just looking for connections that didn’t exist. She’d forget about this in a day or so.

Chase, back home on the couch, flaps his hands a little. He’d _tried_ to tell Mr. Davenport this morning that going to a fireworks show wasn’t going to make him more resistant to loud noises, but…

At least he’s home now. Home safe with no too-loud noises. Home where he can ‘glitch’ (he’s done _research_ now he _knows_ it isn’t glitching) alone in peace.

Tomorrow, Mr. Davenport will be annoyed with him for leaving because of how overwhelming it was, especially since he’s told him hundreds of times that Chase can’t just leave situations even when they’re painful for him, but that’s tomorrow. For now he’s safe.

He’ll deal with it tomorrow.


End file.
